


One more day

by ofoddsandends



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Angst, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Graduation, Not actually that angsty
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-08
Updated: 2018-05-08
Packaged: 2019-05-03 23:07:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14579622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ofoddsandends/pseuds/ofoddsandends
Summary: The summer of 1993. El and Mike are both 22. Life is simple and right in the way it only truly is in the dawn of another disaster.





	One more day

“Smile! God, Mike, you look like you’re in pain,” Karen’s flawless smile faltered if only for a second as Mike begrudgingly reached up to adjust his hat for the umpteenth time. Why they designed the hats like that was beyond him. His hair shot out in every which direction trying its absolute hardest to debunk the foreign fabric. 

A large hand came to rest on his mother’s thin shoulder, “It’s okay honey, i think we’ve got plenty of keepers.” Karen smiled in the tired way her kids had taught her to as she turned to her husband. She smiled fully now and leaned up to peck him on the cheek, “I guess you’re right, John. Are you kids all ready to head off to dinner?”

Mike smiled to himself. John and Karen were a relatively new development, but one he was incredibly grateful for. The divorce had been hard on his mom and maybe harder on him. He was 15 at the time and watching his parents marriage collapse in spectacular fashion instilled serious insecurities about his own burgeoning romance. Insecurities that faded with time and constant reassurance from the best thing that had ever happened to him. He smiled at the thought and the girl who inspired it. 

“Well, how do you feel?” she murmured sidling up to wrap her arms around him. Mike smiled warmly at the girl beside him. I love you, I love you, I love you, he thought for what must be the millionth time. He spun a soft brown curl beneath his fingers and pretended to ponder the question, “infinitely wiser, for sure.” 

El laughed and nuzzled into him. “And infinitely lucky,” he tacked on because he absolutely was. MIT had been hard, but that much he had expected. He never could’ve prepared for how hard it would be to leave El every august. Summer always went too fast. He found himself thrilled at the idea that that didn’t have to be their life anymore. 

He had a box in his pocket, velvet and worn in from years of carrying it around and waiting, waiting, waiting. He didn’t have to wait anymore. “I love you-” he started, and leaned in. 

“Oh jeez, can’t you two give it a rest?” Max shouted shouldering her way through the crowd to jump into Lucas’s open arms. “Hypocrite!” El laughed from her spot beside Mike as she watched Lucas spin Max around in a circle, his gown billowing behind him. 

“Oh, and I love you too,” she smiled, standing all the way on her tiptoes to kiss him softly. Mike smiled back, broader than he had in a while. I love you, I love you, I love you, he wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to stop thinking it. 

“God, I’m hungry. Any chance we can get out of this place sometime this decade?” Steve whined, leaning into Jonathan. It had been an unexpected friendship, but maybe it shouldn’t have been. They’d both cared for Nancy in their teenage years and while they were surprised to realize they had more in common, they weren’t exactly disappointed. It weirded Nancy out at first, but once his new (and evidently, very permanent) girlfriend came along, she stopped worrying so much. 

“All you ever talk about is food,” Dustin groaned, rolling his eyes. “Okay, sure, you’re one to talk Mr. I’ll have two happy meals and a large order of fries.” “Seriously? This again? What is your big issue with my McDonald’s order?” Dustin grumbled. “Who orders two happy meals? Why not one regular meal?” Dustin threw his arms up in the air, exasperated, “Because there’s no toy in the regular meal!”

Will and his boyfriend Tom watched the two with amused trepidation. They’d learned long ago not to get in the middle of one of Steve and Dustin’s arguments and had since resigned themselves to watching in quiet fascination. For two people who technically weren’t brothers, they really really acted like brothers. 

“I second that motion. Food sounds incredible right now. Especially after that service, God i thought it would never end- sorry Mike.” El said separating herself from her boyfriend. These days, the only thing that could separate El from Mike was food. Hopper would be lying if he said he didn’t take advantage of that once or twice. 

The man in question was plying a crying Joyce with tissues at the moment. The realization that her kids were adults was not sitting well. “You know they’ll come visit. You couldn’t keep El and Will away from a Byers-Hopper Christmas if you tried. And where El goes Mike follows, so that’s three already. The others are sort of a package deal.” Joyce cried harder into her tissue as Will came to wrap a comforting arm around her. 

El was already half way to the car, dragging a lauging Max behind her as they teased the boys for their too short gowns. Mike and Lucas protested halfheartedly as they smiled at their girlfriends. Not a lot of people got this lucky, but they did. 

___________________________________________

“Mike?” El was still up. It wasn’t a new thing. Sleep had never been her strong suit, too many things creeped around corners and under beds when she was younger. Now it was just habit. “Hmm?” He mumbled shifting into his pillow. She thought about telling him. The day sat just in their rearview. Bright, and saccharine. It felt perfect. Their life, here, felt so incredibly perfect. Tomorrow, she told herself and knew it wasn’t true.

It was something she’d repeated to herself for weeks now as she held the red plastic phone receiver to her ear and spoke to Mike. He was here now, so close she could reach out just a couple inches and touch him. She thought to herself that it wasn’t fair. It shouldn’t have to happen to people like them. Not today, she thought again and remembered the smile on Mike’s face as he grabbed his diploma and found her eyes in the crowd. She thought of the way the sun shined on him, of his kind eyes, of his warm laugh. She turned to face him. His eyes were closed and the moonlight cast a cool glow over him. He looked at peace, happy, safe. She turned back to the ceiling. “Nothing.” she whispered and shut her eyes. 

___________________________________________

Tomorrow was a mantra that took her through the next four weeks. Through moving out of Hawkins and into their shared apartment in Boston. He’d got a job offer right away and while he was surprised, El wasn’t. Mike was always underestimating himself. Their place in Boston felt like home almost immediately. El thought that maybe she should feel weird in this new place all of a sudden but Boston was riddled with little parts of them. The lake she’d visited him at his freshman year, the brownstones they’d walked by hand in hand, the library she’d kissed him in. She felt right like it was exactly where she was always supposed to be. 

While college had scattered them across the country (Max at UCLA, Dustin at John’s Hopkins, Mike and Lucas at MIT, Will at NYU, and El at community college), they’d managed to all find their way back to each other. Even Max, who swore up and down that the west coast would always be better. Of course her decision may have had something to do with Lucas. 

June found them all on the living room floor of Mike and El’s apartment, huddled around a D&D board, Mike reading aloud ominously as the rest laughed and got wine drunk off a couple cheap bottles Max had procured, seemingly from thin air. 

“The ranger advanced cautiously- oh my god, none of you are paying any attention- El? you too?” El giggled breathlessly as she leant into Will. “I’m s-sorry!” She laughed leaning over to take a breath. Mike rolled his eyes fondly and tossed down his notes. “Well, if this isn’t gonna happen,” Mike sighed and got up to switch on the TV. 

“-police have reported three bodies, found dead at the scene of the crime. As of right now, the cause of death has not been determined, but there is speculation linking the attacks to the previous massacre at west 34th street two months prior. Deputy Matthews has chosen not to comment at this time due to the sensitive and bizarre nature of the previous incident. More on this at 10. Back to you James,” the news anchor stood in front of a dilapidated and mostly collapsed building in Chicago. The attack in question had been international news two months earlier and was a rumored terrorist attack- rumored because virtually nothing was known about the incident resulting in eight civilian deaths that evening. 

Mike turned to face his friends who’d fallen into a hushed silence. He found El’s eyes brimming with fresh tears. She wiped them away quickly with the sleeve of her sweater and took a long sip of her red wine. He changed the channel and sat back down. 

___________________________________________

It was three a.m. and Mike couldn’t sleep. Mostly because El couldn’t. She’d been tossing and turning for hours. He turned to face her and met her back. “El?” he whispered. There was silence for a moment and then a quiet, “yeah?”

Mike paused, considering. “Grab your shoes, let’s go for a walk.” She turned to face him, shooting him a puzzled look, “what? now?” Mike was already halfway up and lacing his sneakers by the bed, “yeah, let’s go,” El sat up groggily but picked up her worn in sneakers anyway and followed Mike out the door. El would follow Mike anywhere, already had. 

___________________________________________

The city seemed silent. El didn’t know cities could be like this. Quiet and dark and still, but for their soft footsteps. They’d been walking for half an hour, hand in hand. Mike hadn’t said anything but she knew he wanted to, was piecing something together, tryjng to figure it out. 

“You know something about the Chicago attacks, don’t you?” Mike said suddenly, softly. They’d come upon Boston Commons and El felt scared and safe all at once, so out in the open but so secluded. Mike knew her all too well. El sighed and sat down at a bench. 

“I got a call. Two months ago. Kali.” Mike stared at her from a couple feet away. He hadn’t heard El talk about her pseudo sister in years. Some days he forgot there were even others out there. Other people like El, hurt and sad and not knowing what to do with it. He sat down quietly beside her and picked up her hands between his own. 

El turned to face him and there was such intense sadness in her eyes that he was almost surprised. It was easy to forget El was different. But not for El. She looked down at their hands, long and hard. She didn’t deserve this. She’d never deserved him. But she was long past the point where she’d deny herself. 

“She said there’d been an accident. They’d been searching for more. Others, like us. They came upon one. A kid living in bronx. Homeless and- and really messed up. Drugs. And a lot of them. He was 20. Kali... she thought she could help him. She brought him out to Chicago and he lost it. Just, just completely flipped. He said we were wrong to ever defy the lab. He killed half her gang and about five other people in the building they were in. He said Kali was next. And anyone like her.”

El’s eyes shined with tears as Mike’s grip tightened. “I have to go. I have to know if she’s okay. And if she isn’t... or even if she is, I have to stop him.”

Mike froze. It felt like a bucket of cold water had been dumped on him. Gone. It felt like she’d just gotten here. They’d just gotten started. El leaving felt like a foreign concept and one he was deeply uninterested in. Risking their lives was something they’d done when they were kids so that they could be happy now. Now was apparently not as long as he’d hoped. Mike pulled away and ran a tired hand over his face. The silence stretched out between them. 

“okay,” he said and his voice rang out calm and gentle. He was resigned in a way that said he hadn’t given up, but he’d understood. 

“okay?” El asked, turning to look at him fully. “You should go.” Mike faced her now and took her in, in the way that was so intimately Mike. Like he was drinking up every last drop, like he was memorizing her, saving her for later. Maybe he was.

El paused and waited for him to continue. He turned to face ahead and sighed, leaning forward onto his knees. “Look... the first time you ran away, you ran straight to me. It was an accident maybe, but it was the best thing that’s ever happened to me. So if you have to run, then you should go.” 

Mike looked at her again, as if to say is that alright? And it was. It was always right with him, “I don’t,” El said and stuttered feeling herself struggle with the weight of his words. “I don’t want to leave you.” and El’s eyes were shining now. He took a shuttering breath and pulled her in, “I’ll be waiting right here. On this bench for you for as long as you need. I promise. We’ve done it before. Being away. I know this is different, but I’ll still be here. I love you, El.” Mike leaned in and brushed the tears off El’s face. She sighed raggedly and shut her eyes, “I love you too, Mike. So much.”

___________________________________________

She was gone the next morning, a flurry of bright nervous energy. El didn’t know what was waiting for her in Chicago. She didn’t know if she’d even make it back. It seemed ridiculous. All the absurd out of this world bullshit they’d dealt with as teenagers, and this was the most deadly of all. A kid, no older than she was. She kissed Mike at the door, long and hard and told him she loved him again. Not goodbye, just see you soon, something they’d said in college from states away. It felt worse now, made her stomach turn and her hair stand on edge. 

But this couldn’t be the end. Mike and El were bigger than that. They were bigger than everything they’d been through. El found solace in this thought as she shut the front door behind her and ran down the stairs to the cab waiting for her. Behind the door, Mike slid to the ground. He reached into his pocket for the familiar velvet box and pulled it out. He stared at it for hours, fell asleep there holding it, and wondered if he made a mistake letting her go again.

**Author's Note:**

> angst? maybe? i’m incredibly bad at writing sad things so today we Tried. might not be that sad actually. i’m too predictable. this takes place right after Mike’s college graduation. I spent like half an hour trying to decide which college mike would go to which gave me ptsd from my college application days so i feel like what little angst is in this is pretty genuine. also i still don’t know how i feel about the school choice but it be that way. also! not totally satisfied with the ending but right now it’s four a.m. and i can’t really see straight so here we are! also this is super unedited and 100% riddled with mistakes because i started at two and am a Human Disaster so expect to see edits! hopefully!!


End file.
